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Lancaster University – Paediatric mild-to-moderate hearing loss workshop for QToDs, caregivers, health professionals (25th July)

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Read below information about workshops to discuss paediatric mild-to-moderate hearing loss research priorities in the UK

“Successful communication is critical for children’s education and social development. Education settings (i.e., pre-schools and schools) are extremely noisy environments but the noise is rich with information. Hearing impaired children are consistently shown to be dramatically disadvantaged academically relative to their normal hearing peers (National Deaf Children’s Society, 2019). This difference is evident from the first year of primary school and continues through to adulthood.

Mild-to-moderate hearing loss (MMHL) is a neglected diagnostic group, despite covering 57% of children with hearing impairment in the UK (Consortium for Research in Deaf Education, 2021). Currently, there are no NICE guidelines regarding the assessment or management of MMHL in children. Furthermore, there is no clear evidence regarding what interventions are optimal for children with MMHL (e.g., clinical trial NCT03771287 – Stewart et al., 2022). The funding and care routes for these children and their families vary across the UK with health professionals working in parallel or in collaboration with teachers of the deaf.

We are currently recruiting from across the UK to attend workshops at Lancaster University during summer 2023. We are recruiting audiologists, teachers of the deaf, researchers and, importantly, children with MMHL and their caregivers. Our aims are to discuss 1) routes to participation in hearing research regarding children with MMHL; and 2) future research priorities for children with MMHL across the UK. To find out more, please see https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/pelican/mmhl-workshops/

Scan the QR code on the flier below or email [email protected]